Coulibaly shot a woman police officer dead on Thursday, before staging the siege in a Jewish supermarket on Friday. He was gunned down by police in a volley of bullets as the drama ended yesterday afternoon.

A fourth suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene - who is the partner of Coulibaly - is still being hunted by police and is described as "armed and dangerous".

Coulibaly told BFMTV: "We just decided at the start, so they did Charlie Hebdo and I took care of police officers."

The Kouachi brothers also spoke to a journalist from the station during a seven-hour standoff with police at a printworks near Charles de Gaulle airport.

"We are just telling you we are the defenders of the prophet and that I, Cherif Kouachi, have been sent by al-Qaeda of Yemen and that I went over there and that Anwar Al Awlaki financed me," he said.

Asked if he intended to kill more civilians, Kouachi replied: "Did we kill any civilians in the past two days when you were looking for us? Come on.

"We are not killers, we are the defenders of the Prophet, and we kill those who insult him."